I know when you first get started blogging, there seems to be a strategy for everything, right? Aside from all the technical stuff you have to get your head around, there are also all these strategies that people are talking about what you need to have in place to get yourself started or at least to give you a plan of action to help you achieve your goals.

From strategies for Personal Branding to Social Media to Monetization to Traffic….. and many more I’m sure. But there has been one important strategy that I believe is the most important one of all.

Without this strategy, you can’t possibly have a solid Personal Branding or Social Media strategy… or any other strategy for that matter! So what strategy am I talking about, that I never read about anywhere…. Your “Content Strategy”.

So What Is A “Content Strategy”?

A Content Strategy is exactly what it sounds like, a strategy put together or developed upon the content your target market, community or customers are screaming out for. Pretty simple right? Well, this is the bones of the strategy, if you will.

What happens next is the meatier part of the strategy. After you have done your research and know just what your target market is in need of or found where there is a hole in the market that needs filling, this is where the strategy takes on its life.

Graphic designers are using illustrations, color, layout, and fonts, to communicate messages visually present products. The entry-level graphic designer salary in Canada is around C$39,423 but bonuses and profit-sharing pay may lead to a higher income. In the US, the starting salary level may be slightly higher and regional influences and the applicant’s education and training level are also elements that may positively influence the income.

Among many other things, graphic designers create websites, product packaging, logos, and print materials. They are usually working in a number of industries and may have different positions. A designer might, for instance, be employed as an in-house worker to create and develop promotional design and materials for the company itself, or a graphic designer may be working for an agency that has a number of clients with their own projects.

Advertising firms, newspapers, high-tech companies, and many other organizations and corporations usually employ their own designers. You can also find a great number of graphic designers that are self-employed and work as independently operating contractors on projects.

Words to the wise for data-crazy online marketers: Databases – the operational backbone of e-business – are great tools for simultaneously structuring and storing sets of information and describing the relationships among those sets in almost infinitely complex ways. But they don’t define a representation of an item or object in a conceptual manner that matches a consumer’s desires.

That might seem obvious at first glance, but most e-commerce sites today treat the database as the alpha and omega of their existence: The data they present to users are week-old mussels slathered in light oil, gently tossed, and presented as bouillabaisse.

Almost no online stores, and certainly none of the major brand names, leverage the power of the information relationships contained in their product databases in a way that benefits the consumer, or even reflects the manner in which consumers make choices.

One of the most important areas of online marketing is, and always will be, choosing a niche market that you think will do well for you. There is a lot to consider when choosing a target niche market if you want to be successful. And many people get too excited too fast and end up picking the wrong niche market because of rumors or hype about a popular product or niche. What works for one online marketer may not work for another online marketer. Makes sense, right?

That is very important to keep in mind. Here are a few notes to help you pick the perfect Niche Market for you. So how to find a popular Niche Market? Well, do your homework first and if you cheat, your business suffers.

First, when choosing a niche market you have to pick something that people are interested in. There has to be a demand for the niche or you will never make enough money to justify the site or sites that you build.

Surprisingly, many niches that sound like they would not be popular are actually very popular. For instance, anything that is a collectible can be a popular niche. People who collect things buy things. And usually, there are many people who collect the same types of things.

These days, many businesses find the amount of advertising on televisions and newspapers too high-priced for their budget, and that counts for online advertising as well. Promoting is the only way you can level the playing field given the tough competition existing in the market. A good marketing job was a promotional campaign on stadium cups.

If you find yourself in a similar predicament, then it’s high time to switch strategy and home in on supplying promotional cups as giveaways. Spending on corporate giveaways provides you with the opportunity to apply a little less than what you will shell out for the traditional marketing paraphernalia. Sure, for the design of your cups we have the perfect solution!

Thinking about stadium cups can be a sound business deal if you want to improve your exposure in the industry. We all know that the general public usually starts their day in the office with a cup of hot beverage. With this in mind, the decision to distribute personalized stadium cups can have a positive impact on your intended recipients. This can be a win-win situation for both you and your customers – they can still continue to enjoy their hot coffee or tea and you get to promote your brand in an inexpensive manner.

I first heard about Rebel Mouse almost two years ago when I was researching the latest tricks & methods to promote a brand I was working for which was focused on the visual web. We were looking for ways to maximize our impact on Pinterest, and Instagram, as well as get the people who followed us on those platforms to read the text media we were putting together. This was an e-commerce platform, focused exclusively on driving sales and getting member sign-ups.

As I always do, before I recommend something to a client, I sign up for the platform myself and poke around. After all, I don’t want to recommend something and then have it flop or backfire! I signed up for Rebel Mouse that day and was impressed with the seamless integration, and effortless way it let me put all my social media posts front & center without having to complete multiple steps. To say it is simple would be an understatement!

Engaging customers is the biggest challenge of a rising and a scaling startup. This is true for every business such as B2C and B2B, yet more difficult to achieve for b2b customers.

B2B Customer Acquisition

B2B customers are a lot more demanding, they are in a sophisticated organization themselves and they deal with complex decision-making processes or purchasing cycles themselves. When working in b2b cases, you do not have one interlocutor, especially for bigger companies. There are many of them. Each meeting that you are having may include different sets of participants and this makes your follow-ups even harder.

Prospecting and cold calling suffer the same way. You do not know if you are dealing with the right profiles that can take you somewhere with your business. You do not know if your messages are relevant. From prospecting to further stages of meeting with customers and follow-up, getting to know your customer profile is often overlooked in a sales cycle. Not much attention is paid to that and as you know. marketing comes with many different faces.

Marketing has many definitions, but the fact is a Marketing Plan is critical to the success of any business. As the Internet has compressed the globe and accelerated the speed of communication to “instant,” marketing techniques and strategies remain very fluid. A successful marketing strategy must fuse local, mobile and off-line together. No longer can any business ignore any of these strategies. And once the “plan” is executed, the results must be segmented and analyzed.

The economic “depression” of some years ago has negatively affected the majority of “brick and mortar” small businesses. In 2018 and beyond, it is critical that a business must be attuned to the latest and most innovative marketing techniques. Customer demographics and lifestyles are continually changing and a business must seek out these customers on their “home field.”

In past years, an individual searching for a product or service has utilized “reviews” to assist them in their decision. This search technique often consumed hours or even days because of the slow speed of communication. And “negative” reviews were difficult to find due to the lack of a responsive “media.” Businesses were thus able to conceal flaws in their product or service. This has all changed.

As far back as I can remember, I have always been the person to do everything different from everyone else. Yes, this drove my parents crazy and got me into trouble at school for not just doing what I was told to do, even if I could see a better way or another way that made more sense. I’m sure many of you reading this can relate to what I’m saying.

When someone tells me “we do this because that’s the way it’s always been done” well you can imagine what that does to me. I immediately go into “well too bad” mode and start doing things the way I want them done. Maybe that’s why I have never been able to stand to work for someone else! So I got kicked out of high school but later (fortunately) found my way. Thanks to online, mostly free classes I got my GED.

A Rebel Is Born

It was a very busy and very emotionally draining week for me last week. I didn’t get any posts done and nothing was done towards my new direction or new product for that matter. So today is the beginning of a new week and a new chapter here at Natalie Louise, so I thought I would start off with sharing a few things with you that I have done over the last 4 months, since starting blogging, that has helped me create the success I have so far.

Anyone familiar with WordPress knows that combating spam comments is a daily chore. This seemingly endless battle continuously gets tougher and tougher every day as spammers are using more clever methods. Although this battle is far from over, there are many ways we can at least attempt to limit the amount of spam our websites receive.

Here are 3 options you should utilize to avoid those useless comments on your blog or website:

1. Adjust your current settings

Many of us simply put comments in moderation and when we find a minute of free time we’ll review them little by little. While there is nothing wrong with this method, spam will still find its way to slip on through not to mention the large amount of time you will spend reading and moderating dozens and maybe hundreds of comments.

Users who leave real comments are far less likely to return just to throw spam on your site. Of course, this assumption may change as the spammer’s mindset evolves. But at the moment this seems to be true. With this in mind, we would be much better off checking the “Comment author must have a previously approved comment” option under Settings -> Discussion.